A Not So Merry Christmas

In the Islamic world, that is. At Middle East Forum, Raymond Ibrahim details the persecution of Christians during the Christmas season, which Islam considers an abomination. If you go to his post, all items have links:

Around the Muslim world, Christmas time for Christians is a time of threats, harassment, and fear. One can point to any number of Muslim attacks on Christians to prove this—whether churches attacked, burned, or forced into closure; whether Muslim converts to Christianity beat, killed, or imprisoned; whether Christians abused on “blasphemy” charges; or whether just sheer violence and killings of “infidel” Christians. (See “Muslim Persecution of Christians” for a list of December’s abuses alone).

More telling, however, are the attacks that specifically targeted or revolved around Christmas:

December 25, 2011 was “Nigeria’s blackest Christmas ever”: in a number of coordinated jihadi attacks, several church were bombed, killing over 40 people, “the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.” As expected, the New York Times all but apologized for the terrorists.

Christmas Eve in Uganda saw Muslims throw acid on a church leader, leaving him with severe burns, blinding one eye and threatening sight in the other. The pastor was on his way to a church party when a man pretending to be a Christian approached him from behind, yelling, “Pastor, pastor.” When he turned, the Muslim threw acid in his face while others poured it on his back, all running away while screaming Islam’s victory cry, “Allahu Akbar!”

In Muslim-majority Tajikistan, “a young man dressed as Father Frost—the Russian equivalent of Father Christmas—was stabbed to death” while visiting relatives and bringing gifts. Considering that the crowd beating and stabbing him were shouting “you infidel!” police cited “religious hatred” as motivation.

These are among the more violent and illegal attacks on Christians around Christmas time, undertaken by Muslim mobs and terrorists. In their own way, however, Muslim governments—many deemed “friends” of America—also make Christmas a very “un-merry” time for celebrants.

For example, if “vandals” in Indonesia decapitated the statue of the Virgin Mary in a small grotto days before Christmas, Indonesian officials have been shutting down churches; one “embattled church” fighting for survival was forced to move its Christmas prayers to a member’s house.

This pattern of treating Christian minorities as dhimmis—Sharia’s legal term for non-Muslims under Islam forced to live as despised, second-class citizens—is business as usual in the Muslim world.

One might have thought that persecuted Christians would receive significant support from their co-religionists here in the U.S., and even from our government, but so far that has not been the case.